The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for use in conjunction with an aircraft for dropping the most sundry types of objects or the like, especially explosive objects, such as bombs, grenades and mines.
The apparatus of the invention is generally of the type which comprises a transport container mounted at the aircraft and containing therein at least one object intended to be released from the aircraft.
During civilian and military use of aircraft it is frequently desired to lay objects over surface-like targets or terrain, such as regions affected by a catastrophe, agriculture regions, gun or weapon emplacement positions, landing fields at airports and so forth. During the tactical employment of military aircraft there are employed for this purpose so-called bomb dumping or scattering containers mounted at the fuselage of the aircraft and after successful dropping of the bombs they are usually dispersed by pyrotechnical means (compare Armada International 1980, Volume No. 3, pages 130).
With such type systems there exists the difficulty of adequately delaying detonation of the usually small bombs, so-called bomblettes, after they have been ejected in order to maintain the requisite distance, needed as a margin of safety, between the released bombs and the aircraft. Additionally, for economical reasons, particularly when the equipment is used for non-combat tactical employment, reuse of the bomb dumping container is desired.